Lightning Rod

In an age of computers and lasers, Morris Rosenthal's lightning rod business, using the basic principles discovered by Benjamin Franklin, is crackling. Rosenthal is president of the 117-year-old St. Louis Lightning Protection Co., the country's oldest lightning rod manufacturing company. "There's nothing you can do about an earthquake or a tornado," Rosenthal said. "There's not much you can do about a flood. But lightning is one of the few things you can protect yourself against."

Greg Duncan doesn't have a lightning rod on his DuPage County home. But he may be getting one soon. A nearby house on Seneca Drive in unincorporated Wheaton, where he lives, caught fire after a lightning strike Wednesday night, causing extensive damage. Duncan said he later heard that his neighbor's chimney was struck by lightning several years ago and a house down the street was hit twice. "It gives you pause," he said. The Warrenville Fire Protection District has...

Ben Franklin's sharp-tipped lightning rod has been used for the past 250 years to provide a low-resistance path to Earth for the 1/2-inch diameter 50,000-degree-plus path of energy. However, recent studies have determined that the old sharp-pointed rod is not as effective as a rounded-tipped 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch diameter rod. The idea is that as the negatively charged step leader from the cumulonimbus cloud above reaches down, its final path is determined when it reaches a point about 75 feet above...

PHILADELPHIA - Benjamin Franklin was a statesman, scholar and scientist, and the newly reopened Benjamin Franklin Museum clues visitors in on the personality traits that led to all that. "Since we don't often see Ben Franklin as an ordinary man, we chose to emphasize his character traits to help people understand what led to his life accomplishments," said Page Talbott, whose firm, Remer & Talbott, served as curators for the updated museum. "Visitors can see an artifact, watch a...

How is it that the Bears are 1-0 but coach Lovie Smith is 0-1? Or is he 0-16? That's what it seemed like listening to all the Lovie-bashing last week. And this is just the beginning. Last week, he was bashed for going for it on fourth down and for blitzing on the Calvin Johnson touchdown that wasn't. And for being too passive. Hmmm. Is it what he does that's an issue? Or just that it's him doing it? It seems every decision Smith makes is going...

April 12 (Reuters) - Reed Elsevier is the latest company to drop out of a conservative national advocacy group in the United States that has been a lightning rod for gun laws. The Anglo-Dutch professional information service provider said on Thursday it resigned its board seat and dropped its membership of the American Legislative Council (ALEC). "We made the decision after considering the broad range of criticism being leveled at ALEC," said a Reed...

It looks as if lightning is going to strike twice. General Motors used the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show here to unveil the Chevrolet Silverado SS, a full-size pickup that left little doubt as to its intended purpose--a high-performance rival to the Ford F-150 Series Lightning. "Watch for this one in a store down the road from you soon," says John Middlebrook, executive vice president of sales for GM, in introducing the Silverado SS to the media at SEMA.

Alfonso Soriano isn't Albert Belle, who thrived on criticism. He's also not Milton Bradley or Todd Hundley, who couldn't get critics out of their heads. Fans can boo him all they want. "His (ability to tune out fans) is probably the best of all the people I've been around," Cubs manager Mike Quade said. "He shows up every day the same — 'Today's the day.' … There are times when he's on fire, and times when he's struggling. But being around him you wouldn't know how he's doing.

Jimmy Clausen, future Notre Dame quarterback, is an excellent football player. This is no secret. There are seven autograph requests in his coach's office from this week's mail. Someone once wanted to fly to California from New York City to take a picture with him. When he threw an interception during summer-league play last year, the interceptor's teammate said, "Keep the ball. You picked off Jimmy." Most see the nation's No. 1 prospect through a distorting prism of hype, criticism and great expectations.

As Carlos Boozer rose to rebound Danny Granger's miss on the Pacers' first possession Monday night, the vocal Bulls forward erupted with one of his typical screams. "Give me that!" Boozer yelled. Boozer meant the ball, but he could've been talking about redemption. He needed some after being widely scrutinized and criticized for a foul-plagued, lackluster Game 1, in which he was outplayed by Tyler Hansbrough. Boozer finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds in 42 minutes...

Doug Marlette tweaked authority for more than three decades, from his brazen, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoons to a popular syndicated comic strip to the Charlotte Observer parking lot, where the young cartoonist habitually stole the publisher's space. Mr. Marlette, 57, was killed in a single-car accident Tuesday in northwest Mississippi. He was a passenger in a Toyota pickup traveling from Memphis to Oxford, where he was planning to see friends and help a high school with a production of his "Kudzu,...

How is it that the Bears are 1-0 but coach Lovie Smith is 0-1? Or is he 0-16? That's what it seemed like listening to all the Lovie-bashing last week. And this is just the beginning. Last week, he was bashed for going for it on fourth down and for blitzing on the Calvin Johnson touchdown that wasn't. And for being too passive. Hmmm. Is it what he does that's an issue? Or just that it's him doing it? It seems every decision Smith makes is going...

Myth: A lightning rod prevents a building from being struck by lightning. Fact: Not true. A lightning rod attracts the bolt to itself, and then a conducting wire directs the charge to the ground. ---------- Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m. WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.

Ginger Zee is a pretty face and a perfect example of the perils of objectification. She punches a few numbers on her phone and hands over the receiver. A slow, drawling man's voice comes on: "Yeah, hi, uh, I got to tell you, you got that real cute weath'r gurrrrl right there. …" She hangs up before he's finished. "It goes on for 10 minutes like that," she says, grinning. She couldn't stand to erase it, though. The message is hilarious, and everything she's not, explained in a single voice mail.

First came the Ford F-150 Harley-Davidson truck paying homage to a bit of Americana, the motorcycle. Now comes the Ford F-150 Lightning Rod that pays tribute to another bit of Americana, the tattoo. While Ford had to travel only to Milwaukee to team up with Harley to develop a pickup that will hold a motorcycle, it had to visit New Zealand to find the Maori tribe known for its moko, a type of tattooing that could be adapted to the Ford truck. Ford said it will unveil the...

They can say the Bears' 48-24 victory Sunday over the Detroit Lions meant nothing special to defensive line coach Rod Marinelli. They can insist that Marinelli, fired after coaching the Lions into NFL infamy a year ago with an 0-16 record, treated this game like the 15 others on the Bears schedule. They can pretend the passion with which the Bears defensive linemen played had no connection to their desire to make Marinelli look good. But Marinelli's face told a...

In an age when Americans compare hotel rooms, cars, even prospective mates on the Internet with the click of a mouse, trying to identify the best, most effective medical care may seem simple common sense. But when President Barack Obama included money to do that in his economic stimulus plan, he set off one of the sharpest and most unexpected political fights of his young administration. And although Obama prevailed -- securing $1.1 billion for...

Did Michelle Obama "let the team down" when she decided to quit her job and dedicate herself to raising her children? Should she earn a paycheck for her work as first lady? And what exactly should she wear to the inauguration? Michelle Obama Watch (michelleobamawatch.com) hosts a daily debate on all things related to the future first lady. "It's a celebration of her," explains Gina McCauley, an Austin, Texas-based attorney who started the site last year to push back against what...